Designed Pause is a space for high achieving corporate professionals who want permission to pause — not out of exhaustion, but out of intention. I’m Deidra Green, a former senior leader who has taken two intentional career breaks to create clarity, alignment, and exposure to new options. Each pause helped me design my life more intentionally — leading to entrepreneurship, senior leadership, and now a new chapter focused on thoughtful transition. This podcast is for women who are: Successful on paper but quietly questioning what’s next Considering a career break, sabbatical, or pivot Looking for planning tools, frameworks, and real-life examples Ready to listen to their own voice and design life on their terms Here, I document my own Designed Pause while sharing the tools, mentors, and mindset shifts that help make pauses intentional — not reckless. This isn’t about quitting your life. It’s about designing it. ✨ New podcasts weekly ✨ Subscribe to walk this season with me
Medical Tourism in Thailand: My Bumrungrad Hospital Experience (Start to Finish)
I'm in Thailand, and I used part of my career break to do something I never had time for in corporate. I got a full head-to-toe checkup at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok.
In this episode, I take you through the whole experience, start to finish. I'll tell you why I wanted to go beyond a standard physical at 40, how I booked a package with the price listed up front, and how the hospital handled my insurance for me. Then I walk you through a six-hour day that felt nothing like any healthcare I've had in the United States.
At the end of the day, the doctor found something. It's going to change my stay here and the next couple of months of my life. More on that in the next episode.
This isn't medical advice. Talk with your own provider about what's right for you.
Free Designed Pause Journaling Prompts: https://v2.stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts
30 Sept 2026
They Offered to Double Her Salary. She Left Anyway.
I spent years with a suitcase that never really got unpacked, for a job I was good at. My guest today knows that life well.
Alana Rollock was a nurse turned director of client outcomes at a virtual nursing company. She flew Monday through Friday, answered emails at Sunday dinner, and loved the work. When she tried to leave, they offered to double her salary. Twice, they convinced her to stay.
She left anyway. Not because she wasn't successful, but because, in her words, "compensation can fix the discomfort momentarily, but it cannot always fix misalignment."
Today, through RLK AI Vision Lab, Alana helps business owners and organizations turn AI into practical business infrastructure. She's also the co-creator of Awaken, an eight-week activation accelerator for people turning their experience into something of their own.
In this episode, we talk about:
– What her corporate chapter actually looked like, day to day
– Golden handcuffs, and how she knew there was no longer a price that would keep her
– Why she treated her employer as her "investors" while she prepared to leave
– Being happily single and child-free by choice at 40, and what people get wrong about it
– The stillness nobody warns you about after you leave
– What she'd do differently
If something in this conversation stayed with you, don't rush past it. Start with the free Designed Pause Journaling Prompts.
Free Journaling Prompts: https://v2.stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts
Connect with Alana:
– Free Awaken AI Masterclass, Wednesday, September 30 at 8:00 PM EST. Text AWAKEN to 888-778-3502 anytime to register.
– Alana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanarollock/
23 Sept 2026
I Didn’t Wait for Retirement. I Built the Life Now
Since I was a little girl, I had a dream of living on an island close to the beach. I always figured it would happen at retirement. After I had done enough of the other things first.
And then I stopped waiting.
This is a personal episode about why I made travel and a move to Saint Lucia part of my career break — and what that decision has taught me about what luxury actually means, what ambition costs when it goes unchecked, and who you become when you are placed in a completely new environment where nobody knows who you are and there are no expectations of you.
I talk about the sister's trip that first brought me to Saint Lucia, what I had to sell and let go of to make this move, the realization that I was conflating luxury with convenience, and what it feels like to build a business without being crushed by the weight of my own ambition.
And I talk directly to the woman who has a version of this dream but has convinced herself it's only possible later.
It isn't. The road will be different for everyone. But it is worth traveling.
Book a free Pause Clarity Call: designedpause.com use code Sample100
Download the journaling prompts: https://v2.stan.store/designedpause/designedpause_prompts
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Contact Designed Pause Podcast
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Designed Pause Podcast?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
